As I walk through a row of trees I can feel the slight New York breeze blowing on my face, ruffling up my few short hairs that are left out of my beanie. I lift my new Nikon camera and take a picture of a few squirrels running and jumping along the tree branches, dashing through the red, yellow and orange leaves that signal it is autumn and that things are about to get cold. At 23 I still love everything I did in high school: autumn, taking pictures, and writing in the newspaper, the only difference is that instead of my high school paper I’m now writing for the New York Times.
I hear Uptown Funk suddenly blaring from my pocket, letting me know I am getting a call. I rest my camera back against my chest while I dig in my pocket to see who is calling me. Momma Bear’s name and picture lights up my phone; Momma Bear isn’t actually my mom. My mom passed away a few years ago. She is my best friend Kendra’s mom, but she feels like she could be my second mother.
“Why hello Momma Bear! I was just thinking about calling you!” I say happily to her, but instead of her cheerful voice I hear her son’s voice telling me something has happened.
“Anna… Its Jack, you might want to sit down,” he tells me in a somber voice.
“What’s wrong? Where is Momma Bear? Is she okay?” I try to hold back my panic, but I know something is really wrong.
“Mom’s fine, Anna it’s not about her. It’s about Kendra… There’s been an accident.” I sit down against a tree knowing that if I don’t I’d end up falling anyways. He quietly explains to me how he was driving them to go see their mother when a bunny ran into the middle of the road, how she grabbed the steering wheel to make sure he didn’t hit it, but she jerked too much and they ended up rolling down a hill and slamming into a tree on her side. He tells me what hospital they are at and asks me to come as quickly as possible.
Running to the other side of the park so I can get to my car takes my breath away, my slightly heavier 5’7” frame isn’t used to running. I quickly climb in my new Malibu and get going to the hospital as fast as I can in the New York traffic.
As soon as I get there I see Momma Bear with tears streaming down her face and a cup of coffee in her hands. I look her up and down making sure she is okay, and other than being in her gardening clothes and mud on her face and in her honey blonde hair she is fine. I run up and hug her as tightly as I can.
“How are they? I spoke with Jack but he refused to tell me how badly either of them was hurt.” I ask
“Anna honey, calm down, Jack has a few broken bones and bruises, but otherwise fine,” she leads me down the hallway towards what I am assuming is their rooms, “Kendra… Kendra isn’t so good, she broke her collar bone, and her ankle, and hit her head a lot as they rolled around.” We stop in front of a window I look in and see Kendra laying in the bed and quickly look to make sure that the monitors show that she is still breathing. Jack is sitting in the chair beside her with a cast on his left leg and right arm. “She is in a coma, the doctors say there was a lot of bleeding and her brain had to shut its self-down to be able to heal. Jack blames himself, refusing to leave, and only left to get the X-rays because the doctors practically dragged him out.”
With tears steadily flowing down my cheeks and falling to the floor, I walk into the room and sit on her other side and grab her hand and squeeze it within mine. I look up at Jack and see that he is crying also, I let out a long internal sigh that he is okay other than his broken bones. I reach out with my other hand and give his a gentle squeeze. At this point there are no words that can describe what either of us is feeling so we just stay quiet. I feel guilty about how happy I am that he is okay, then I look down and feel terrible that it is my best friend right there in the bed.
The first few weeks we all spent every second we could with her and each other, but then Momma Bear and I had to get to back to real life, our jobs, our pets, they needed our attention too. Jack was the only one who kept going there every second of everyday, and just like the days before that’s where I found him a month after the accident. Sitting with his hand in hers and his head resting on their hands.
“Jack can I show you something?” I ask quietly, as if talking too loud is against some rule.
“Sure, what is it?” He says without even looking up.
“Jack you have to follow me to see it,” I wait hoping he will come, “Please? It’s important.” Slowly he lifted his head to look at me then got up out of his chair, he leaned down and kissed Kendra’s forehead and whispered something to her before following me outside and to my car.
“Anna, what are you doing? I can’t leave, I have to be here if she wakes up,” he says angrily.
“Jack please? It won’t take long, and I will bring you right back as soon as I am done,” I say calmly, understanding that he needs to be angry at anyone but himself.
“Fine, but if we are gone longer than I think necessary I will call a cab and come right back here,” he tells me before getting in and slamming the car door shut.
I take him to the park telling him, “This, right here, this is where I was when you called me that day. I was taking pictures, for The Times, there were squirrels jumping around. This is the real world, Jack, do you see how the wind still blows, and the sun still shines? I know you’re upset, we all are, but do you really think she wants you moping and not really living? You and I both know she would want you to live, to be happy. Kendra isn’t dead, she is still alive, and one day she will wake up. We gotta live until then Jack.” I say as I stand in front of him and hold his hand in mine. He looks down at our joined hands and takes a slight step forward. I can feel the roughness of his skin from years of hard work in his father’s shop. He puts his hand on my cheek and I look up into his bright green eyes and can tell what he wants. I look down at his lips and close my eyes as he leans in and gently presses his soft lips against mine. When we pull away I know that he has been wanting this for as long as I have.
As the weeks turn into months, and months into years. Jack and I grew closer and closer together. We got married and had a little girl we both agreed to name Kendra. At the age of 3, she is incredibly smart and knows that the woman lying in the bed is her aunt and the person she is named after. Today is my best friend’s birthday and she isn’t even awake for it, but just like the years before, we bring her gifts, and flowers, and balloons. As we sit and talk little Kendra pulls on my shirt and says “Mommy! Eyes, auntie!” I look down at her in my lap and see that she is pointing towards the bed, and I say to her, “Yes, Kendra, auntie’s eyes are closed honey.”
“No! Mommy eyes! Eyes owpan!” She says then jumps off my lap and goes to the bed and says, “Auntie! Hi auntie!”
Looking up I see that she is right, Kendra’s eyes are open, and all I can do is stare at her in shock. Finally I jump up and run to the door and call for a doctor before turning back to see my best friends brown eyes for the first time in almost six years.